Arsenal Loses To West Bromwich Albion, Almunia Not To Blame

I am very,very,very disappointed. This is very hard to believe. I found myself still gaping like a fish minutes after the final whistle. Arsenal has just failed to get closer to the table leader,Chelsea, as West Bromwich Albion beat us at HOME with a 2-3 score.

First half was over with no goal. I could see that Arsene Wenger was very upset . Gunners were not so good on the first half (it's not like West Brom did play good though) and it continued until certain point on the second half.

The first goal was scored by Odemwingie at 50th minute as a result of what I can say as brilliant work. Thomas outwide saw the winger got to the byline, and Odemwingie turned the ball beyond Almunia. I was still thinking of going to win after this goal.

But then came the second goal. W.B.A.'s Jara did a shot from close range right in front of Manuel Almunia. The ball was blocked POORLY and it bounced into the goal. My admiration to Almunia, built after he saved Brunt's penalty shot at minute 38, crumbled.

The Gunners tried to fire back up to their usual performance. But not until minute 73 did they came alive. Ex-Gunner Jerome Thomas added one more goal for West Brom. And again I blame this one on Almunia. Instead of diving for the ball, he waited for Brunt to make a shot from his position on the right. Brunt gave the ball to Thomas who came from the left to slam the ball into open space.

And of course, we had to protect our dignity! There's no way we lose three-nill to a club like W.B.A. Arsenal began to push harder and almost gave no chance for West Brom to attack. They added extra ammunition in form of Vela, Wilshere, and Rosicky. Lots of shots were produced but in the end we could only netted the ball twice. And both from the magic feet of Samir Nasri. Oh yes, the last 15 minutes did a great job to lighten up my mood. Still, I can't forget the three points which have flown away.

Arsene Wenger mentioned that, "he didn't recognize his team today."  On Arsenal.com, he said,

"We made it more difficult because we were not at our usual level. Not defensively, not offensively. Overall everything was difficult for us today - passing the ball, winning the ball back, winning the one against ones. And we got what we deserved which was zero points. We didn't deserve more. The positive is that we did fight until the last minute but it was just not good enough at that level to get three points."

Arsene refused to blame Manuel Almunia, mentioning that the entire team was who caused the defeat.

"You can have question marks about many players today if you look at the performance, especially the defensive one. Many players made massive mistakes defensively. I do not want to come out on any individual performances because we were collectively poor. You could single out a few players who have made mistakes."

Still, I think it's time to put Almunia aside and give the position to other goalkeepers on our list. Though I'd prefer it to be Mannone or Szczesny. Since Fabianski doesn't have good reputation in my eyes.

What do you think?